I hope everyone enjoyed last weekend’s Thanksgiving holiday! Just before break, our student-run publication, the Wayland Student Press Network, got some thrilling news at the National Scholastic Press Association fall convention in Nashville: they earned First Place in the Best of Show for the Online News Category! Also, Jeffrey Zhang, Karis Tam, Ainsley Jay, and Kyle Zhang were awarded Honorable Mention in the Multimedia News Story of the Year category for the piece they wrote about MCAS changes last April. In other words, their piece was selected as one of the “Top 10” in the country for news! (Read their award-winning story, “Massachusetts Revisits Graduation Requirement,” linked here.) Congratulations to all of our student journalists and their advisors, Sarah Lee and Eric Bosco. Thank you for your hard work and for being such a vital part of our community!

A reminder that next Wednesday, December 10, the high school will dismiss at 12:15 p.m. so that staff can engage in professional development. Thanks to the Wayland Public Schools Foundation, I am delighted that Sarah Ward (an internationally recognized expert on executive function skills) of Cognitive Connections will present to both the WMS and WHS staff. We look forward to our learning together.

As I mentioned in earlier messaging, yesterday during Extended Advisory all students were trained in our Non-Discrimination policy. This training provided students (1) a shared definition of discrimination; (2) information about resources and how to report concerns; and (3) scenarios about the difference between comments and behavior that are discriminatory versus unkind. We will continue these discussions in a future Advisory session. For your information, the slides that guided our conversation are linked here.

Earlier today I sent this memo to our current juniors and their families about our transition away from National Honor Society and to a school-based honor society more closely aligned to our values. The current NHS advisor, Ms. Lima, and I will keep the community apprised of our progress.

Enjoy the weekend!

~Allyson Mizoguchi, Principal